Introduction

Institutions have been identified as playing a central role in both the theoretical literature of economic development and the economic literature specifically concerned with the relationship between information and communications technology (ICT) usage and growth. Highly influential writers in the field of the New Institutional Economics (NIE) have argued that a country's economic status is a result of its institutions and that institutions change only exceedingly slowly. The role of institutions, in particular, offers a unique challenge to economists, highlighting why additional voices are needed. From one perspective, institutions determine economic behaviour and structures, but the social and cultural forces that create those structures often fall within the field of expertise of other social scientists. The WEF, in conjunction first with the Harvard Center for International Development and subsequently with the French-based business school, INSEAD, has published a Networked Readiness Index annually since 2001 that covered 133 countries in its 2010 report.